Both the Macomb Daily's Bruce MacLeod and the Detroit News's Ted Kulfan are reporting that the Nashville Predators will probably dress David Legwand tonight for Game 4 against the Detroit Red Wings:

April 16, RedWingsCorner: The Predators are on the ice at Sommet Center. Well just about all of the Preds are. Center David Legwand is not practicing, following the save-it-for-the-game strategy that the team is using with his broken foot. Legwand didn't practice earlier this week, but did play more than 16 minutes in Monday's Game 3. So expect him to play again tonight unless there's an announcement otherwise.

Jason Arnott is on the ice. After being dazed in a celebration scrum after scoring the winning goal, Monday, Arnott said that he will be ready for tonight's game.

Post-practice update: Legwand on not practicing: "Just keeping it calmed down as much as possible. We'll see what goes on tonight in warmups, see how it feels and go from there."

Legwand on the chance that he'll play tonight: "Probably, most likely be in. We obviously need a win tonight."

April 16, Detroit News: The Predators just finished their morning skate and interview sessions with the media. Coach Barry Trotz stopped short of confirming Grosse Pointe native David Legwand will play again despite a bruised left foot. Legwand made his first appearance in the series Monday in Game 3, scored a goal, and was one of the Predators most effective players.

Both MacLeod and MLive.com's own Ansar Khan confirm that Brett Lebda will play tonight, and Darren Helm may play as well:

"It's been a tough couple of games here just watching," said Lebda. "All you can do is just be a cheerleader for the guys. It's hard. But it's a role that I had to accept. I'm going to get my chance tonight to play."

Lebda said that last year's playoff run had him eager for more this spring: "I got a taste of a long run last year. I was anxious to get back in there and get another taste of it. When I sit and look back, that was what was the most disappointing thing. But those first two games, we played really well and got the wins. We should have had the win last game."

Cheers to Lebda for keeping a positive attitude.

Here's the line combinations that the Red Wings are using at practice this morning ...

I certainly hope that the "Normal Unit" of Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Holmstrom play together tonight...

The fact that Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg are together in the morning skate means that they'll play on the same line for considerably longer than the two seconds they did at the start of Game 3. But splitting Datsyuk and Zetterberg onto separate lines could happen at any point in tonight's game.

Babcock explained his logic behind putting Lebda back into the lineup to Kulfan:

April 16, Detroit News: Brett Lebda will replace Andreas Lilja in the Red Wings line up Thursday in Game 4. Lebda's puck-moving ability and quickness was an ingredient the Wings were lacking in Game 3.

"We thought last game we weren't as quick," Babcock said. "Lebs can push the puck up the ice. Our penalty kill has been good and Lils can block shots as good as anybody. You sacrifice something to get something."

There could be one other change. Babcock indicated one forward was potentially going to sit out depending on how the player felt after warm ups. If someone had to sit out, Babcock said Darren Helm would go in the line up.

Here's St. James' report on Helm's possible insertion into the lineup:

April 16, Detroit Free Press: Babcock also said Darren Helm might be in depending on the health of the forwards. Based on the morning skate it didn't appear anyone was seriously banged up, but guys like Tomas Holmstrom, Mikael Samuelsson and Kris Draper are all coming off recent injuries.

"There are lots of nerves going through me right now," Helm said after Detroit's morning skate at Sommet Center. "If I do get the chance, I definitely have to be as ready as I can to take this opportunity and really prepare. I'm just really excited and hopefully I get the chance.

"I'm going to take warm-ups and after that, I'll find out. Nobody's really hurt or injured too bad, so having to take warm-ups definitely caught me a little off-guard."

St. James says that Lilja's being benched because of a big "brain [flatulence]" that led to a Predators goal in Game 3:

Lilja being scratched isn't much of a surprise, because he was the one who got caught in Game 3 making a bad change, leading to the Jason Arnott goal. Arnott scored when he took advantage of a bad change by the Wings; Nicklas Lidstrom had come on for Chris Chelios, but Lilja didn't do as good a job coming off so that Brian Rafalski could get on (the Wings want to have Lidstrom and Rafalski out against Arnott's line when at all possible).

While Lilja is a bigger body and a good shot-blocker, Lebda has far more of an offensive upside, and adds speed to boot.